Golkar stands firm on state leadership issue: Akbar

JAKARTA (JP): No amount of external pressure will make Golkar budge from its decision to nominate Soeharto and B.J. Habibie as the next president and vice president, an official of the dominant faction vowed yesterday.

Akbar Tanjung said Golkar's stance on state leadership was final.

"No outside pressure will make Golkar change its mind," Akbar said, adding as a rebuke for journalists: "You should not be influenced by (certain) information, especially from abroad."

Akbar, secretary to the coordinator for Golkar's board of patrons, was referring to a call by the Petisi 50 group of noted government critics Friday that the People's Consultative Assembly reject President Soeharto's accountability speech and not reelect the 76-year-old President.

The Assembly's five factions have all formally renominated Soeharto to his seventh consecutive term.

Akbar was also responding to speculation that the Assembly is now under strong pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to withdraw B.J. Habibie from its vice presidential nomination.

"Only we (Indonesians) know who the appropriate people are for the presidency and vice presidency," Akbar said after joining a team of five Golkar leaders who asked Soeharto, at his private residence on Jl. Cendana in Central Jakarta, if he was willing to be nominated.

"Other people or foreigners may share their opinions on our state leadership. But they have to respect our sovereignty," he said, citing how Indonesia has never influenced the U.S. presidential election.

Officials from the other four Assembly factions also rejected the calls.

"The Petisi 50 should redefine its demand, as I cannot understand what it is they want," Deputy Assembly Speaker of the Armed Forces (ABRI) faction Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid said as quoted by the Terbit afternoon daily Saturday.

"The group should first read the President's accountability speech, including the appendixes," Golkar's Ary Mardjono said in reference to the more than 2,200-page document.

"They would have understood, had they read all of the document," according to Clara Sitompul of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

Role

Constitutional law expert Yusril Ihza Mahendra said yesterday that it was likely the next vice president would be given greater authority than that granted to his predecessors.

"Given President Soeharto's age, the next vice president will bear greater responsibilities compared to the previous vice presidents," he said yesterday.

"I think the next vice president will perform a lot of duties in connection with international affairs, representing the President."

He cited that it would be difficult for the President to go on many international visits because of his age. Soeharto turns 77 this May.

Yusril, however, said the vice president would still not be in a decision-making position.

"The decision-making authority would still belong to the President as it is he who receives the mandate from the Assembly to lead the country, not the vice president."

He said vice presidency would be considered a strategic position only if the president dies or steps down. (imn)